


Summer Adventure Camp

by rpslover



Category: American Idol RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-11-17
Updated: 2013-02-24
Packaged: 2017-11-18 21:18:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/565412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rpslover/pseuds/rpslover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a summer camp AU ~A/N~ I'M SO SORRY EVERYONE BUT THIS FIC HAS BEEN DISCONTINUED</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I

**Author's Note:**

> Both characters are depicted under 18. Phillip is 17 and Colton is 14 and their age difference will be an issue in the story.

The sun kissed Phillip’s shoulders. This was the first summer he could drive himself up to camp and he was stoked that his dad had let him take the jeep. It was humid and hot and the black wife beater he was wearing was clinging to his body. The silver jeep did 55mph on the winding road without any protest. The thick dense forest of pine trees crowded in on both sides of the narrow highway. He reached around behind the seat and dug into his ice chest for another bottle of water.

His heart skipped a beat as he rounded a tight corner with one hand on the wheel. There was someone on the shoulder that Phillip had to veer to miss. His heart pumped blood through his veins at and extraordinary rate. He was white knuckled on the wheel until he spotted a turn out and pulled the jeep to a halt. He got out as quickly as possible; he was scared and angry and needed to get his feet on solid ground.

He paced the length of the jeep a few times before a boy rounded the corner. He was lanky with short blonde hair and he didn’t look very happy. He was wearing a blue stripped shirt, some khaki cargo shorts and a black backpack and he was closing in on Phillip fast.

“Dude! Watch where you’re going!”

Phillip was staring into a pair of angry brown eyes but they softened immediately when they discerned how distraught Phillip was. The boy rolled his eyes and gave him a scrutinizing look.

“It’s okay dude. Really, no harm done.”

Phillip nodded and looked at the ground. The boy was adorable and Phillip’s brain always seemed to melt around cute guys so he found a rock and stared at it. It was just his luck that he’d almost kill a boy more adorable then any at his school.

 “You’re going to Smokey Mountain?” The boy crouched and retrieved a canteen from his backpack. Phillip looked up in time to see the boy give him a once over.

Phillip’s basketball shorts had the Smokey Mountain Adventure Camp logo stitched on the leg. He’d been going since he was old enough. He uncle owned the land the camp was built on. The camp was right on the edge of a beautiful fresh water lake surrounded by rivers and trails and the perfect place for an adventure camp. The doctors always said that the fresh air was good for his health.

“Yeah, first time doing ultimate adventure though.” Phillip looked up at the boy and barley got the words out, why was his mouth suddenly so dry?

“Do you think I could get a ride, you know, to make up for almost killing me.” The boy’s face split into a huge smile. He was all red mouth and braces. “This is my first year. I wanted to jump right into ultimate adventure. I love the outdoors and my dad wanted to get me out of the house.” The boy made Phillip’s palms sweat and all he could muster was a deformed smile and a gesture to the jeep.

Once they were both seated in the jeep the boy turned toward him.

“I’m Colton.”

“Phillip” 


	2. II

It took Phillip a few minutes to work up to small talk but he was eventually able to spit out something remotely normal.

“So why were you walking to camp?” He didn’t look over to see Colton’s response. He was overly aware of his driving skills now. He didn’t want Colton to think he was any worse of a driver. Colton laughed and tossed his backpack in the back of the jeep.

“My dad’s a single dad and a doctor. He was on call at the hospital and I told him that if he could give me a lift I’d walk the rest of the way if he got called back. So when he got called in for an emergency surgery I hopped out. He made me promise not to hitchhike but I don’t think this counts.”

That made Phillip laugh. Although once he started he wished he hadn’t. His laugh sounded too loud and awkward in his head.

After his embarrassment died down a little he decided to stay quiet. He nodded and agreed with a few of Colton’s minor observations but when he saw the camp sign he was thanking the powers that be. He pulled the jeep into the camp’s familiar parking lot. Colton turned toward him and cocked his head slightly.

“You don’t talk much do you?” Phillip looked over at him with a small smile then ducked his head. Colton smiled back and chuckled.

“Okay then… I guess I’ll see you around. Colton got out of the jeep and grabbed his bag before heading off across the lawn to the registration area.

After watching Colton walk off Phillip shook himself out of his daze and gathered his thoughts. He grabbed his big blue duffle bag and walked across the well-known grounds.

~*~

It was early evening before Phillip saw Colton again. They were all seated around a campfire. Jake, the camp activities coordinator, was going over the safety guidelines Phillip had heard a thousand times. He zoned out and used his time to find Colton in the crowd of a hundred or so campers. It was a beautiful night, all the stars were out, and it was bright enough that Phillip found Colton with relative ease.

He studied Colton in the flickering firelight. He was wrapped in a blanket even though he was right next to the campfire. Phillip couldn’t take his eyes off the blonde boy. His hair appeared to be glowing and the effect had Phillip mesmerized. He had this permanent smile plastered across his face and laughed at everyone’s jokes.

Phillip’s heart caught in his throat when Colton’s eyes met his. He’d been caught staring. His stomach dropped as the smore supplies started going around. It was time for the Annual Smore Toast.

Phillip looked down at his smore quickly. Damn. He felt his stomach get fluttery and knotted. He chanced another glance over at Colton but the boy wasn’t there.

“Hey.” Colton’s voice came from behind him and it startled Phillip. Colton sat down right next to him.

“Oh hey.” Phillip looked everywhere but at Colton.

“So you said you’ve been here before?” Colton elbowed him and Phillip finally looked up at him. “Because I was wondering if you knew the best time to sneak out?”

Phillip felt like he couldn’t breathe. Was Colton asking him to sneak out with him? Or was he just getting the information from him so that he could sneak out with the green shirts. Green shirts were junior campers. Phillip’s head spun, he couldn’t believe how hard he was crushing on a green shirt, and Colton was so off limits. But Colton’s brown eyes wouldn’t leave Phillip’s thoughts. He’d been trying to shake the younger boy out of his head all day to no avail.

When Phillip realized that not only had he been staring at Colton’s mouth but that he hadn’t answered the question Colton had asked him he wanted to die. He looked down quickly and rubbed his sweaty palms on his khaki shorts.

“It’s not really…I mean it’s sorta. Uh. Against the rules…” Phillip knew he sounded like an idiot. He wanted this stupid campfire to be over so he could go back to his cabin and hide for the rest of the summer. He wanted to just run away from this horrible situation that he’d gotten himself into.

Phillip’s eyes shot up to meet Colton’s when he felt the hand resting on his. The touch sent a jolt through his overtaxed system.

“Hey.” Colton’s voice was soft and understanding and Phillip was able to take a small breath. “Just meet me by that weird tree near the crafting pagoda later.” Colton squeezed Phillip’s hand and gave him a big smile. Phillip thought maybe, the boy might be crushing back.

“Promise?” Colton’s question broke Phillip a little. All he could do was nod and try not to get lost in Colton’s eyes and then he was gone. Phillip was left sitting beside the campfire until the place was deserted. His blue shirt afforded him some leeway but Jenny and her clipboard found him eventually. He just smiled and she melted just like every year. She was a nice, older lady with a soft spot for him that she’d developed when he’d been laid-up in the office cabin his first year. He’d had kidney problems his whole life and she’d let him eat his way through more than his fair share of popsicles. 

He made his way back to his cabin and crawled into his bunk.


	3. III

It wasn’t lights out yet so Phillip listened to his bunkmates talk and managed to chime in when they were speaking to him. He was definitely distracted but he’d known these guys for years and they could tell when he needed space, they probably thought he was just in pain or something. Phillip was in pain, just not in the way they assumed. He hadn’t had the chance to tell them that his body had been running smoothly for a while now, he’d gotten so caught up in Colton that his health improvements seemed trivial and conversation pointless. He felt like he had an illness, his stomach was uncomfortable inside his body and whenever he thought about the blond boy he couldn’t regulate his breathing or stop the tightness in his chest. He couldn’t remember a time he’d ever felt this way about someone.

He had liked a few boys back home at his high school but it was mild. He expected that they were all straight anyway. He’d also assumed Colton was straight until he’d held his hand and asked to meet him after curfew. So maybe he didn’t know anything about boys. He’d thought Colton was going to confront him for staring and make fun of him. Green shirts weren’t supposed to make fun of Blue shirts but Phillip believed himself to be the one exception

He sighed and rolled over onto his stomach. He set an alarm on his watch and then let the heat lull him into a coma where he didn’t have to think about how cool he wasn’t.

~*~

Brandon and Seth were still chatting quietly when the alarm on Phillip’s watch started to beep. He rolled out of the bunk and shoved his shoes on.

“Way to go Phil! Jenny finally ask you to act out Garth Brook’s  _That Summer_?” Seth chuckled and Brandon snorted and choked on his soda. Seth was a Garth Brooks fanatic and insisted that every life scenario could be summed up by a Garth Brooks song.

Phillip just flipped him the bird and shut the cabin door quietly.

He could see Colton sitting on the picnic table from across the field. He had his arms folded around himself to ward off the chill that had settled over camp. He heard Phillip’s footsteps as he approached and looked up with a small grin.

“Hi” Phillip looked away from the boy and scuffed his sneaker in the dirt before looking up again.

“Hey” Colton smiled even wider and patted the spot next to him on the table. Phillip climbed up and sat an appropriate distance away from the junior camper.

Colton laughed and scooted next to him, bumping their shoulders together playfully.

“You probably have no idea, but you’re cute.” Colton’s soft voice had a matter of fact determination. “And I already know that you don’t know and…I just…everyone here says you’re a total spaz…but I think you’re probably just a virgin or something.” Colton hopped off the table and turned to look at Phillip “which is totally okay by the way!” Colton’s brain caught up to his mouth and he examined Phillip for a reaction.

Phillip figured he looked like someone who had just witnessed a car accident. He felt shocked and embarrassed. He didn’t know what everyone said about him and he didn’t want Colton to know. He felt his brain slip into a panic mode; he tried to tell himself to calm down with no success.

Colton arched his eyebrow and nodded slowly as if Phillip’s reaction was not what he’d been expecting. Phillip wanted to die; he was clearly proving all gossip to be true by being the biggest spaz in the history of existence. He felt like he was choking or something. Why did he exist? He looked up at the sky and prayed for a meteor to strike him down. Colton took a step forward when he realized Phillip was not calming down.

“Hey dude, its okay. I like, had it figured out in the jeep this morning. Thanks for almost killing me, oh and the ride.” Colton was trying for comic relief, punching Phillip lightly in the arm. He frowned when he felt how still and tense Phillip was.

“Phillip? Seriously, I think it’s kinda cute you know. I’m trying to tell you that I think you’re cute.” Colton’s voice had a ring of slight exasperation.

Phillip just made the choking noise again, this time he pushed up away from the table and he wasn’t sure where he was going but he was getting away from Colton as fast as he could.

He realized he was literally running away but he didn’t want to slow down. He didn’t want to think, or analyze. He didn’t want to know what Colton was going to tell everyone about him in the morning.

He could hear the boy stage whispering his name while trying to keep up with him in the dark woods. Why wouldn’t he just leave him alone! Phillip was stopped at the edge of the lake. He felt like he’d been punched in the gut. He looked to both sides and realized he was at the end of the line; he had nowhere left to run. He turned back to the tree line just in time to see a very angry looking junior camper emerge from the darkness.

~


	4. IV

Colton closed in on him in a matter of seconds. Phillip watched his expression as he took long strides toward the lake. Colton’s nostrils flared and his eyes were wide.

“What are you thinking?” Colton jabbed his index finger into Phillip’s chest and was not about to back off an inch, he was clearly not happy with the way Phillip was acting. But Phillip had no idea what he was doing, his thoughts were swirling and his emotions resembled a traffic collision. He didn’t know what to do but he could see Colton’s breath leave his mouth in little silver clouds and his lips were red and getting chapped by the cold.

Phillip leaned in and kissed Colton. He pressed their lips together; Colton made a small, startled noise and pulled Phillip further against him by the shirt. Colton opened his mouth and Phillip found himself tasting Colton’s metal braces. His head was really spinning now; this was the highlight of his pathetic experience with life.

Phillip started to get distracted by how his arms were hanging awkwardly in mid-air. Colton started to pull away and Phillip didn’t know what to do, he just knew he didn’t want it to stop. He rested his hands on Colton’s hips and tried a smile, although it felt somewhat like a grimace. He knew he was probably as red as a tomato and he was trying to put the self-doubt out of his mind. He didn’t want Colton to be angry at him for running away or kissing him unexpectedly.

“I’m not, ya know, good with people…” Phillip tugged at the hem of Colton’s shirt nervously.

Colton just gave him a soft smile. He leaned back to regard Phillip.

“You’re going to be a lot of work, aren’t you?” Colton continued to smile to lessen the sting behind the words. He was clearly worried that Phillip would run again. He brought his hand up to Phillip’s cheek and lightly touched the stubble there.  Phillip leaned into the touch and didn’t respond to Colton’s inquiry. It seemed rhetorical to him. He knew he’d be a lot of work.

“Okay then.” Colton leaned up and kissed the corner of Phillip’s mouth. “First rule though: No running away.” Colton stared into his eyes and Phillip just nodded and ducked his head down for another kiss. He was almost certain that Colton could get him to agree to anything as long as he kept kissing him.

Colton pulled away slowly and tugged on Phillip’s hands, entwining their fingers and pulling him along until they were making their way back through the woods toward camp.

~*~

Colton gave him a small kiss at the edge of the forest and then snuck back to his cabin. It was well after curfew now. Phillip sighed and rubbed his hands through his short hair. The further Colton got away from him the more anxious he got. What the hell was he doing? This boy was already all he could think about and that was before he’d shared those sweet kisses with him. Phillip wandered slowly back to his cabin, he wasn’t looking forward to the litany of questions from his bunkmates. He was also biding his time waiting for a certain situation to resolve itself. The cold air was helping a little. He tried to think of everything but Colton while taking deep breaths.  He was eventually able to talk himself down so he could sneak in without fear of embarrassment should anyone be waiting up to grill him.

Phillip’s mind was already doing that thing where it ran through all the events of the evening over and over and highlighted all the awkward, horrible moments where he sucked.

Were his kisses to hard? Was he too inexperienced? Had Colton been lying, there’s no way he could really like him. Colton probably wanted to get away from him as fast as possible. Why hadn’t he seen it before?

He crept into the dark cabin, nobody was awake. It was just as well, Phillip didn’t exactly feel up to anymore human interaction.

He contemplated how he was going to avoid Colton and all future embarrassment related to his inexperience as he fell asleep. 


	5. V

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's nothing graphic or even sexual but this chapter is a shower scene between two underage boys.

 Phillip stumbled to the showers in the morning. He’d been tossing and turning all night and felt like a zombie. He was lying in bed awake when the sun came up and figured he might as well hit the showers before the morning hoards. He knew there would be plenty of hot water and that’s what kept him going.

The showers were located in a long grey building near the lake. They were separated by gender with both the boys and girls having their own side. A few years before they had separated the shower space into stalls. Phillip was the happiest about it because when they had group showers he always felt like people were staring. He was pale and he bruised easily and everyone always thought he was sick even when he wasn’t. Not to mention the surgery scars curving around his side from his back to his stomach. Kids always had a thousand questions he didn’t feel like answering.

Phillips made his way down the long row of stalls to the very last one. He stepped in and pulled the curtain closed behind him. He hung his towel on the wall and turned the hot water on full blast. He shoved his dirty pj’s in his laundry bag and climbed in under the glorious stream of hot water. Nothing in life was better than a hot shower. He let the water run over him and wipe off his previous day. He let go of his anxiety and fear and self-doubt. It was complete relaxation.

Until he hear the curtain open behind him.

“Morning.” Colton’s quiet, teasing voice made Phillip blush from head to toe. He was frozen in place, not a muscle in his body would function properly. His mouth was glued shut. It was like he’d turned into the Tin Man before Dorothy helped him in the forest. His brain flickered on and off until he was finally able to force some words past his lips.

“Oh my god.” His voice was all shock amplified by his southern drawl. His hand finally listened to him as he groped for his towel. His fingertips met nothing but rough concrete. There was a chuckle from behind him and it surprisingly quelled some of his anxiety and brought a small smile to his face, this was teasing.

Colton wasn’t going to run his clothes up the flagpole or anything. He was flirty with him. Colton was flirting with him. This didn’t feel like a prank. It felt playful and it brought weird squishy feelings into his stomach.

“You’re like, another level of evil.” Phillip tried to let go of the awkward and the self-loathing. He tried to stop thinking that Colton wanted nothing to do with him, because he was clearly interested.

Phillip wanted to be able to trust people. Trust Colton. But there was still no way in hell he was turning around.

“Yeah, probably pretty evil… You have a cute butt.” Colton’s voice was closer and closer until he was breathing onto Phillip’s shoulder. His tone was light and flirty and it did things to Phillip, he could feel his whole body tinge red again.

“Thanks?” His response was weak and he couldn’t keep the question out of his voice. His answer was a laugh against the back of his neck that sent shivers running down his spine. He felt Colton’s fingertips graze his hips and his body involuntarily tensed up and a familiar sense of panic took hold of him. The fingertips fled his body instantly and his panic rose. He was pushing him away, oh god. His breathing started to get uneven and raspy.

“You’re a total basket case.” Colton’s voice was a mixture of emotions Phillip couldn’t identify but he felt Colton’s arms wrap around him and squeeze. Colton’s face pressed into the valley of his spine between his shoulder blades and Phillip forced himself to relax a little.

“Let’s just take a shower together, it will be fun. Promise.” Colton’s lips pressed against his back over and over until he took a deep breath and relaxed completely.  He felt the bar of soap against his skin and his thoughts raced.  He wasn’t sure where this was going or how many chances Colton was going to give him but he decided that he would take all he could get and hope for the best.


End file.
